Knot forming member for four-in-hand ties



Oct. 12, 1954 MEADER- 2,691,170

KNOT FORMING MEMBER FOR FOUR-IN-HAND TIES Filed June 27, 1951 of W Patented Oct. 12, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE KNOT FORMING MEMBER FOR FOUR-IN-HAND TIES 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to a knot forming member particularly adapted for use with four-inhand ties.

It has been a difiicult problem for men to tie a four-in-hand tie which is extremely soft and pliable, such as a fine silk tie which lacks body, and produce a knot which has a good appearance. After ties have been used for relatively long periods of time, the portions thereof which form the knot become flimsy and lack the body necessary to produce a neat looking knot.

It is an object of my invention to provide a knot forming member adapted to be held in overlying relation to the two crossed sections of a tie before tying a conventional four-in-hand knot or a Windsor type knot and which is adapted to be completely enclosed by the knot to produce a neatly tapered, well shaped knot regardless of the type of material from which the tie is manufactured. I

It is another object to provide a knot forming member provided with retaining means for holding said member in position while a knot is tied therearound.

More specifically, it is an object to provide a knot forming member made entirely of a single unitary piece of material such as plastic and which can be inexpensively produced and formed into a tapered bodymember having a concavely shaped rear surface and a generally convexly curved front surface tapered from top to bottom and provided with a retaining hook at the top tohold the same in place while the knot is tied therearound.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views and in which;

Fig. 1 shows a tie with my forming member inserted into the knot thereof as it appears about the neck of the wearer;

Fig. 2 shows a partially tied tie with my knot forming member therein and illustrating the position of said member within the knot;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of my knot forming member;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view thereof;

Fig. 5 is a rear elevational view thereof; and

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

As best shown in the accompanying drawings, I provide a knot forming member having a solid downwardly tapered body member, designated by of the knot.

the numeral [0, with the sloping edge portions II. The rear surface of the body It! is concavely curved and said edges H are rounded to provide a smooth tie-engaging surface.

The front surface of the body member ID is slightly convexly curved in the desired contour A retaining hook or depending tongue element I2 is formed in downwardly extending relation to the top end of said body member 10 and is disposed substantially parallel in rearwardly spaced relation to the rear concave surface of said body I0.

As best shown in Fig. 2, the two tie-lengths are initially crossed in the conventional manner preparatory to tying a conventional four-in-hand knot or a Windsor type knot. The retaining hook I2 is inserted behind said crossed lengths and the body I 0 is disposed in front thereof. The longer and wider tie length is then wrapped around said body to form a loop and is inserted upwardly behind the short tie length above the crossed portions and downwardly through said loop in the conventional manner, thus completely enclosing the entire knot forming member and concealing the same within the knot. It should be noted that the front body member merely overlies the two crossed portions of the tie lengths and the depending hook element retains the same in the proper position tofacilitate tying the knot therearound. The soft material of the tie will conform to the convexly curved front surface and will embrace the same. The taper of the knot will be governed by the taper of the body member l0 since the knot will be formed around said body member. It will thus be seen that, if along tapered knot is desired, the taper of the body member should be lengthened and, if a short stubby tapered knot is desired, the taper on the body member should be considerably shortened and, by varying the shape of the body member I0, any desired shape of knot can be obtained.

Obviously, it would be possible to tie the knot around the body member without the retaining hook l2 and the taper of the body member would hold the same within the knot; however, this would necessitate holding the body member during the entire knot tying operation, which of course is not necessary if the hook is provided and is hooked over the two crossed tie lengths. After the knot has been pulled tight around said body member, the same is slipped upwardly into the collar along the short length in the conventional manner. The hook element does not prevent such slipping of the knot into the proper final position.

It will be seen that I have provided a relatively simple, yet highly eflicient, knot forming member for four-in-hand ties by which any desired knot shape may be obtained by varying the shape of the knot forming body member and which is adapted to be extremely inexpensively produced. Obviously, the complete forming member will be enclosed by the knot of the tie and will be concealed from view. It should be noted that my knot forming member governs the shape of the knot and does not actually produce a pre-tied knot or a slide device which merely clips on to the two tie lengths. The tie is untied in the usual manner to remove the same from the neck of the wearer and, for all practical pu poses, the tie is tied in the same manner in which it would be if my forming member is not being used.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing :from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

A'knot forming device for a four-in-hand tie comprising a downwardly tapered one piece body and a supporting hook all formed as a unit, said body being of transversely concavo-convexedioramation and having a straight upper edge, and a straight lower end edge, the body having downwardly converging straight side edges, front and rear surfaces of the body being substantially "smooth and unobstructed and the convexed sur face being its front surface, and said vhook consisting of astriphaving a shank forming portion 4 extending upwardly rrom the upper edge of the body substantially midway of the ends thereof and bent rearwardly and downwardly the greater portion of the length of the body and forming a bill spaced rearwardly from the confronting rear concaved surface of the body and disposed in a vertical plane located rearwardly of the said confronting concaved rear surface of the body and having its inner surface substantially flush with the plane of the side edges of the body whereby portions of a tie crossed at the front of acollar may be disposed between the bill and the concaved rear surface of the body and gripped by the bill and mount the body in front of the crossed tie portions while wrapping the long end portion about the device and crossed portions of the tie and forming a knot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

